It's Not Red
by CierraLuv97
Summary: People can change. They do it all the time. This becomes even truer when Daphne runs into their old friend Red Herring, and realizes that he is actually nice. All he's asking for is a date, as friends. Danger? Psh, no. Not yet. And not from Red.


**_Heyyy, it's Cierra here. With another story that I will update if I have time. _**

**_I was never really interested in Red until I started reading all these anti-Red stories. "Red is dumb, Red is unclassy, Red deserves to die in a hole." It was really annoying. Sure, evil people tend to stay evil, but Red was just the neighborhood bully. Not evil - maybe he was mischevious and liked to mess with Fred, who was actually the biggest nub alive - but definitely not evil. No one is truely evil. It's more than likely that he would have grown up. Become a decent guy. Gone into real estate. No one seemed to agree with me, however so I decided to write it myself. And before you get your knickers in a twist (hehe, knickers), this isn't a story where they're on a date and suddenly Red whips out a twirly evil mustache and starts laughing like my tech ed teacher. And it isn't one where Red and Daphne fall desperately in love. That is a clearly see-through plot that leaves everyone going "UGHHH." You will be surprised at the ending, I garentee you._**

**_Without further ado ("My name is Ado!" I know I've said that in another story but it's soo funny...) I give you... _**

**It's Not Red**

"Hey, Daphne!"

I turned around and started walking backwards. Over the years I've perfected this skill to the point where I hardly ever crash. It was after school and I was heading to Fred's house (as usual - he only lived a block away from school and it was where the gang met every day). Most people knew that I spent most of my time with the gang, so I was kind of surprised that someone needed me.

But, the face wasn't familiar. It was a tall, muscular guy with curly red hair. Even when he was a few yards away, his bright green eyes and mischievous smile popped off of his face.

"Um, hi… do I know you?" I asked, smiling.

"You don't remember me?"

"Do I want to?" I teased. Something about me liked this guy. He seemed fun. "You seem like a troublemaker." Kind of a cute one at that.

"Not since middle school. I was a bully then, and I was accused of a _lot_ of stuff I didn't do." He raised his eyebrows. "Does that ring a bell?"

"It sounds familiar," I admitted.

"Wow, you're bad at this game."

"That's probably because _normal _people tell me who their name instead of being cryptic about it."

"Hurtful."

"Was that sarcasm?" I hated when I had to ask that question, but sometimes in life it was necessary.

"You haven't changed a bit," The boy observed wryly. "Okay, I'll give you another hint: Fred hated me."

"Oh my God, you're Red Herring!" I gasped. My smile disappeared, and he didn't look so cute anymore.

Red laughed. "Relax, Daphne. I know I was jerk then. I was in Coolsville for the weekend, and thought I'd come visit y'all and, you know, apologize for being such a turd."

I smiled hesitantly, still walking backwards. "Well, how do I know you're not still a jerk and trying to steal my lunch money or anything?"

"How do I know that you're not an alien sent down to Earth to eat my brains?" He shrugged. "It's called _trust_."

I officially liked Red again. "Okay, I believe you. You're forgiven."

"Sweet." He grinned.

"So, whatcha doing in Coolsville?" I asked.

"Well, I'm moving on Monday to Brazil for my dad's job-"

"_Brazil_!" I repeated, shocked. "Aww! I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's cool. My old school sucked, and who doesn't want to speak Spanish or whatever Brazilians speak all the time? Anyway, my dad said I could leave my boarding school yesterday and come down to Coolsville and hang out."

"Why here?" I frowned. We weren't exactly New York.

"Because the town which my school's in makes Coolsville look like Tokyo. I'm talking population negative seven."

I laughed. "I like you, new Red. You're funny. Don't get any ideas, though," I warned him. "I -"

"Let me guess, you're dating Fred?" He teased, although I got the feeling.

"Why does everyone assume that?" I groaned. I mean, it was true. Fred was kind of my boyfriend. It's just I hate how people look at me and think, _definitely the quarterback's boyfriend_. It was so stupid. I almost wanted to say _Ha, you're wrong because I'm dating the chess club's prized player_! Except that'd be a lie… unless I got Fred to play on the chess team. Ooh, I should actually do that.

"So you're not going out with him?" Red said skeptically, back in real life. I shook my head.

"Noo…" I hoped fervently that he was stupid like I remembered him.

"All right, so who _are_ you going out with?"

"Fred…ward." I was pretty sure I'd heard that in a TV show, which made it believable.

"From iCarly?" Ah, that must be the TV show, which ironically enough, made it unbelievable.

"Okay, so maybe I'm dating Fred. I just think it's lame how everyone thinks they can tell who you go on dates with just by looking at you. It's so stupid."

"Oh, speaking of dates, I kind of have a question for you." He smiled hopefully. Aw, he was _really_ cute.

"Yeah?" I asked, wincing internally. I already knew the question.

"You see, I kind of had a huge crush on you when I lived here -"

"What do you take me for, stupid?" I joked. He rolled his eyes.

"And I thought, if I'm moving to Brazil, I might as well complete all of my goals. I've already petted a cobra, and I've already bungee jumped, so I was wondering if you'd want to go out to dinner or something?"

"And all after my huge 'I have a boyfriend' speech, too," I grumbled.

"I'm not asking you to go out with me. I just want to tell my half-brother Rich about it. This sounds weird, but I used to talk to him about you all the time. And now that he's in the hospital -"

"Oh my God, why?" I stopped walking, shocked.

"He was in a car accident," Red said, shrugging and trying to look cool about it. I could tell he wasn't cool about it. "He got drunk and crashed the car into a tree. He went into surgery for his arm this morning."

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked. I remembered, last year, when Shaggy and his mom were in a really bad car accident. When my mom told me, it felt like something cold and iron was squeezing my chest, and I couldn't breathe. And, even though Shaggy is one of my best friends, it's not the same as Daisy or Delilah or Dorothy getting into an accident. Your family are the people who you can't remember life without.

"Yeah, they say he's gonna be fine. I just thought it'd make him laugh."

"And your dad's still making you move?" And I thought my dad was mean.

"Well, Rich is my half-brother. My mom cheated on my dad with this other guy, so my dad doesn't really care about Rich whatsoever." Red went from slightly serious to slightly funny. "Anyway, how can you say no after a sob story like that?"

I sighed in defeat. "I can't."

"Cool."

"That was the most classic guy thing to say," I scoffed.

"Well, excuse me for being a dude," he laughed.

"Fine, you're excused." I rolled my eyes.

"So, I'll pick you up tonight at six." He decided, enjoying himself.

"Um, I'm not sure that'll work -"

"Great, see you then!" Red grinned and then ran towards a red (wow, talk about _irony_) car parked in the parking lot. I smiled. That little devil.

All I had to do now was to tell Fred that I was going on a date with his childhood nemesis.

Oh, he's going to like _this_.


End file.
